by Richard Dee
“Do you remember the name of the world they were visiting?” Irin asked, looking relieved.
He screwed his face up. “It was a new one I think, I heard a couple of the crew talking about it. I can’t recall the name but it started with an R.”
That was good, we had a name and a place, Myra could find it in her chart computer, or we could use the web.
“Thanks, Eyck,” said Irin. “We don’t have a number for them yet. When we do speak to them, I’ll tell Nuri that you said hello.”
He grinned. “Tell him that I’m jealous and I’ll want to know all about it when I see him.”
“Well that’s sorted out then,” Irin said as we drove back to Freefall. “It sounds like they’re having a good time.”
There didn’t seem to be any point in staying; we might as well get space-borne and decide what to do next. My money was still on us going to New Devon, smoothing the waters and working for Griff. But it depended on Irin as well.
Back on Freefall, I asked Myra to locate the world while she prepared the engines for take-off.
“It’s a bit vague,” she complained. “Villiars and R-something, hang on I’ll have a look.”
Myra sounded touchy today, how did the program do that? Sometimes I could still forget that I was talking to a machine.
“Nothing, Dave,” said Myra after a longer than usual pause. “I’ve gone over my database and the web, and there’s nothing that starts with R that has a Villiars presence. It’s not even in the updates. It must be a new world and still secret.”
That wasn’t totally surprising. A lot of development work went on in secret, largely because of people like Rixon and Irin, at least until the place was up and running. It was faintly ironic that the reason she couldn’t find her family was connected to her past life. The Gaian’s had a word for it, kurmuh or something.
“Have you found it?” called Irin, coming through to the wheelhouse. I shook my head.
“Myra can’t find any information.”
“Let’s go back and talk to that woman again. If I have a few words with her I’m sure I could persuade her to tell us.”
“That’s a bit of overkill,” I suggested. “It doesn’t seem sinister; it’s too public to be anything but legitimate.”
“I guess so; I just can’t stop thinking about the last time we were here.”
“Rixon promised they were safe from him,” I said, “and whatever else he might have done, I never knew of him going back on his word before. It’s all a bit overkill for it to be him anyway, he wouldn’t involve any more people than he had to.”
She nodded. “You’re right, they wouldn’t have departed in full view. Costa wouldn’t go unless Villiars had told him to.”
I had an idea. “I suppose that there is one other thing we could do.”
I called Kal Rivers. He wasn’t a good boss or even a nice person but at least he had given us work. Irin hadn’t liked him, which had been mutual. If we asked him nicely, he might be able to help us locate Costa, and everyone else.
“I was hoping to hear from you,” he said. “You said that you were coming back, just a few weeks you said. That was ages ago. I can’t hold your job open much longer.”
I explained that we had got caught up in a problem, apologised for not being in touch and generally grovelled. He could cause us a lot of grief if he wanted. Beside me, Irin was scowling, oblivious to the niceties of keeping a good reputation. Please don’t speak, I thought.
“Can you help me trace a Villiars manager called Costa please,” I asked, naming him without telling him why.
“Costa?” he said. “He’s the man from Jintao, isn’t he? I heard that he was moved to a new world, but I can’t tell you where; even if I knew, which I don’t. It’s still under development. Villiars don’t share details, you should know that.”
“I understand, but he has a relative of my co-pilot with him and we want to get a message to them.”
“That blonde, stroppy girl?” he asked. Beside me, Irin went red again. I could tell that she was about to join the conversation. I put my hand over the mic. “Calm down,” I said, “try to imagine that he likes you, we need his help.” She shrugged, pulled a face and stuck two fingers up at the speaker.
“Yes, that’s right, can you get a message to him?”
“I’ll try,” he said.
I nudged Irin. “Thank you, Mr Rivers,” she said, through gritted teeth.
“What do you want me to say; if I manage to speak to him?”
“Can you tell him that Irin’s OK? She sends her love to Sanja, that’s her mother. And to Nuri, her son. They’re with Costa. Can you tell him that she’ll be at this number if they get a chance to call?”
He assured us that he would, then we discussed our return to work. I said I would give him an answer as soon as I could.
“I’d forgotten just how much I hated him, he’s a creep,” Irin said as soon as we had disconnected. “He was always looking at me in a sleazy sort of way. Why do you WANT to work for him again?” I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to remind her that she had been all for it not so long ago.
“I don’t but I need some money and a good reputation. Freefall needs some certification renewing if I want to carry freight again.” She gave me a dubious look. “I’m legal, Irin, I have to operate under the regulations. We have to buy food, there’s landing fees, all the things that criminals don’t have to worry about. I have to work for someone, it’s business, nothing personal. I can’t afford to upset people, word would get around.”
That touched a nerve. “Listen, I didn’t want to be a criminal,” she shouted. “I’m getting a bit fed up with it. You go on about your reputation, well I’ve got one, haven’t I. Ria thinks I’m a bad person, that secretary hated me on sight.”
She took a breath and carried on before I could say anything. “Kal Rivers thought that I was nothing more than a blonde with a nice butt. I’m a person, with responsibilities and I’m doing what I can. I wasn’t always on the wrong side of the law.”
I shouldn’t have said it but her attitude didn’t help. “If you want to change, you can’t insult people who’re trying to help you.”
We faced each other. Irin was feisty and I was stubborn, who knows what would happen. Meanwhile, we had to decide what we were going to do. I waited her out.
In the end, Irin blinked first.
“You’re right,” she smiled. “I should be more grateful. Trouble is; my life has taught me to fight and argue and expect nothing.”
I could understand that. I realised that I knew very little about her life with Rixon, or what she had done before she had become a pilot for him.
“I’ve never asked, how did you end up with Rixon?”
“It was after Richel, Nuri’s father, died in the accident on the farm where he worked. My father was killed at the same time, a harvester reversed into them while they were working up against a wall. They had headphones on and never heard it coming. They were both crushed. I had flown lifters for a mining company but I gave it up to raise Nuri. When they died, I had to get another job, just to survive. My mother had no skills that we could use so she looked after Nuri while I went back to flying. I couldn’t do the mines again as the tours were too long. I did whatever I could, to get money; I ended up flying demonstrations for a dealer in agricultural craft. I used to demonstrate the crop spraying ships on a test-field, how you could use them to get really close for targeted dosing of infestations. After one display this man came up to me and told me that I could make a lot of cash flying for him.”
“Was it Rixon?”
“No, it was one of his bosses I think, he had a weird name, one of those Independent Worlds ones, you know with the initial, then the surname, like they do over there. H Anders something, anyway he asked if I could fly speeders. When I said that I had, he asked me if I had ever shot at anything. I was desperate for cash so I said that I could do it. They wanted me to prove it so I went with him. He took me
to a ship in orbit and got me to fly a speeder.”
“And I suppose that was when it got serious?”
“I realised that I was in trouble when they told me that I had the job. I was pleased and asked when I would start. The boss laughed and said that I already had. I asked to go back to the surface and they said no. I wanted to see Sanja and Nuri, say goodbye; but they wouldn’t let me. Next thing I knew, we’re trans-light. The man told me that my family would be safe as long as I did what I was told, if I disobeyed them, they would suffer.”
This was a variation of a story that I’d heard before, it was common knowledge, everyone knew that was the way that the gangs ruled. It didn’t matter when it was happening to someone else. Hearing Irin’s words made it real, she was almost sobbing and I could feel her heart breaking. I put my arms around her and held her as she carried on with the tale.
“We could send and receive messages. My mother got money from them so in that respect it was OK but there was always the threat, it was in the back of my mind all the time. That and the knowledge that I was never going home. If I ran; they would hunt me or my family down. In the end, my mother sent me a message, she was moving to Jintao, the neighbours were asking questions and Nuri was getting into trouble at school. He was being bullied and told that his mother was a criminal.”
“And then you met Rixon?”
“Yeah, he was one of their captains, they had four or five. I ended up on his ship, he had lost a few pilots and I got sent over to make the numbers up. We did all sorts, but I never shot anyone, mostly it was threats; like we did with you at the Silver Moons. Most of the time the things we were after we got without any trouble.”
I knew that it was the usual outcome. When faced with the choice, most miners and businessmen valued their lives. When the insurance companies stopped paying out so easily, surveying outfits started employing guardships and getting their own private armies. Inevitably, things had escalated.
“Rixon used to say that what we did was victimless; nobody had enough loyalty to die for a boss, they all had too much sense. The insurance paid up, no-one was hurt and anyway, there were plenty of planets to go around. There was an old legend he was fond of quoting, something about robbing the rich, it used to make him laugh.”
Chapter Four
It looked like there was nowhere else for us to go. If Irin and I couldn’t go to Costa, or Rivers, that only left one place. We took off and I told Myra to set course for New Devon. It would take us a while and Irin fretted about her family. Even though it all seemed to be logical, her inability to talk to them was upsetting her. I had to restrain her from calling Evers for news every few hours. While I understood her concern, my immediate worry was how we were going to survive a meeting with Ria.
That wasn’t the only thing we had to think about. There was everything that had happened on Qister-Alu and the knowledge that once it all came out, we would have to keep our heads down for a while. Griff had already said that he knew something about it, he was sure to want the full story. If he knew, who else did? How long would Paoul’s secret remain one?
I decided that I would have to call Griff again before we arrived. There was a lot to organise, I already knew that Irin had no idea what was involved in keeping Freefall legal. Calling Griff to set the wheels in motion meant that there was another chance for Ria and Irin to get acquainted as well, as long as I could get them both to face the camera at the same time.
“I’m going to call Griff again,” I said, while we were still two days out. “There’s a lot of things to organise, getting Freefall ready to work and keeping us out of sight. I can ask him about Costa as well, he has contacts, he might be able to find out where he is.”
Her face initially fell, as soon as I mentioned looking for her family she smiled. “That would be great if he could. How much about what we’ve done are you going to tell him?”
“I’ve told Griff most of it; I don’t know how much he’s passed on to Ria. I’m sure he’s something to do with Paoul’s organisation, he knew about Maeve, way back before any of this, before I met you.”
At least Irin knew about Maeve, how we had met, about Jev and the disc. How I had taken her to Callo and how Paoul had nearly killed me. The only thing I hadn’t told her about was Griff’s warning to me; when he told me not to get involved. Looking back, that probably meant he knew a lot more than he was letting on.
“Do you trust Griff?” she asked.
“I do, he’s saved my life, more than once. Griff is one of those people who knows everyone, he has no love for the Federation. What we know might not be news to him anyway.”
“This time,” she said, “we need to tell them everything, what happened at the lookout and the ship. How Elana died, what she was doing. Then what Rixon said. Then we can tell her how he vanished again. If she ends the call, we have to call back, until she hears the full story.”
I thought about the best way to describe the events of that day. How Elana had been so determined to act, how things had been going so well. How we had found Irin’s family before it had all gone horribly wrong. We might have rescued Sanja and Nuri, but at what cost? Elana was dead. A pirate was dead. Rixon had killed one of his own as well.
Rixon had called us on the radio in the dead pirate’s speeder. He had said that the cost was too much; he would give up his pursuit of Irin’s family. They would be safe from him; if we met again, all bets were off.
As far as I was concerned, Rixon was getting the worst end of his pursuit. He had lost four ships with their pilots, which he would have to justify to his boss. Even though I had lost my new friend, he was worse off than I was from what had happened. I was still in some sort of shock about his being alive. It was over fifteen years since I had seen him last. In those years, the Rixon that I had known, the easy-going, kind Rixon had changed into some other kind of person. He had become a criminal who ruled by threats of reprisal. One who took and held hostages to ensure loyalty. One who was caught up in industrial espionage, kidnapping and who knows what else.
“What’s your connection to Rixon?” Irin asked. “Now you know all about how I got involved with him, I want to know your story.”
Which just showed how much we really knew about each other. Despite what we had been through, I hadn’t known Irin’s past until a couple of days ago, hadn’t felt the need to know it. Maybe she had felt the same?
Where should I begin? This was something else that I had never spoken about. I told Irin most of it, from my Navy days to the Chenko’s involvement and everything that had happened on Basilan and the Orca. Even so, I still left out some of the details, about my capture on Oonal and that I had been released because of my father. And I never told her my real name. That wasn’t relevant to our present position.
“So Rixon saved you. He must have been a good person, underneath it all,” she said after I had finished.
“Yes, and now I can’t quite make up my mind which Rixon is the real one. And there’s more to this, I just can’t work it out.”
“What do you mean,” she asked, a puzzled look on her face.
“You were there; when I called Ria, you heard her reaction.”
“I did, she hated him, didn’t she?”
“That’s right. The thing is, I don’t understand why. She’d only met Rixon once, when we bought Freefall from her father. She told me that she and Elana were friends when she recommended her for the job with me but she never said how they knew each other.”
“They must have been friends for a long time, to have that sort of reaction to her death.”
“I guess,” I said. “I never heard of her, but then, I wasn’t always around. I thought I was doing the right thing, telling her Elana was dead, that she would know who to contact. I didn’t know if Elana had any family. I had never expected the response I got.”
If they had been that close, I could agree with her sentiments. Rixon had been my friend, but recent events had changed my mind about him. The intervening ye
ars had not been kind, he had lost the carefree attitude and become a hardened and ruthless smuggler and criminal. And he had wanted to kill me. For the second time in my life, I had been saved because someone hesitated. The first time was because of my father, the result of that was that I had become Dave Travise. Irin didn’t know that bit; I had decided not to tell her. I left it and changed the subject.
“That’s not the only thing we have to discuss,” I reminded her. “What about Qister?”
“That’s all secret,” she reminded me. “We can’t tell Griff, we promised Paoul.”
“Griff already knows some of it,” I said. “He keeps his finger on the pulse; he knows about Miro and the cave collapse, if not about the Khayan and what we left at the university. I won’t lie to him.”
This was the biggest secret. There was bound to be a price on my head, on both our heads, once the Federation realised that there had been survivors from the collapse of the caves on Qister-Alu. When Paoul went public and the story came out, about the things that we had found, then it would be obvious that we were very much alive.
But Paoul had said that he wouldn’t do that straight away, they wanted to spend time analysing everything we had collected. They needed their argument to be watertight and get as many planets as possible primed for the news. It meant that we had a few months to find somewhere to hide. Paoul and Sal had hacked the police computers from the university. They had managed to alter a lot of the information about me, changing my name on the reports from Dave Travise to Finn Douglas, someone I had once been. Finn had died once before, in a backstreet computer hackers’ hovel on Basilan. Sal had resurrected him and killed him again on Qister-Alu. It was almost like my life was moving in a circle.
“We can’t do much else,” Sal had admitted, “the systems are watched and the backdoor we have is really only for emergencies. But I think that, after what you’ve done for the movement, this qualifies as one.”